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Advice Needed in Planning a Cruise Ship Wedding


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My fiance and I have decided on a cruise ship wedding at sea. After browsing reviews, we decided on Royal Caribbean, so I contacted them by email with some questions. I received a response 2 weeks later, which didn't answer any of my questions. It basically stated that we would actually have to book and pay for our cruise and desired wedding package before anybody would personally speak with me about any details or available dates. We are looking at next April or May, which is over 10 months out, and we aren't really prepared to pay for the whole shebang in one lump payment, so we decided to wait several months, save the money, and book in January. Problem: We need to send invites, or at least save the dates to get a sense of how many people will come, because that will determine what package we choose and how much it will cost. We can't really do that without a date. Advice?

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My fiance and I have decided on a cruise ship wedding at sea. After browsing reviews, we decided on Royal Caribbean, so I contacted them by email with some questions. I received a response 2 weeks later, which didn't answer any of my questions. It basically stated that we would actually have to book and pay for our cruise and desired wedding package before anybody would personally speak with me about any details or available dates. We are looking at next April or May, which is over 10 months out, and we aren't really prepared to pay for the whole shebang in one lump payment, so we decided to wait several months, save the money, and book in January. Problem: We need to send invites, or at least save the dates to get a sense of how many people will come, because that will determine what package we choose and how much it will cost. We can't really do that without a date. Advice?

Pay them first before they talk to you? That was a rude response!

 

Maybe you can read this recent thread and ask questions too on that thread.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2516402

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  • 2 weeks later...

So we are in a similar situation although we chose NCL instead of Royal Caribbean. It seems a few of the cruise lines all use the same wedding planning company (a third party vendor). When I contacted them I pretty much got the same response you did, however, they did point me to a place on the NCL website where I could check the calendar to make sure the date I wanted for my wedding and the ship I wanted were available prior to booking.

 

Once you make your ship reservation (and that's just the deposit needed, you don't have to be paid in full) you can reserve your wedding date online and they will send you the contract and amount due via email. You have 7 days to return the contract and make the payment or they will release your date. The payment will be the base price for the package you are choosing plus the service fees.

 

 

While we have known for a few months what we were going to do, we waited to announce it to family and friends until just this week when we actually booked. As it turns out NCL was running their reduced deposit promotion so I sent an evite save the date so they would receive the information faster and be able to take advantage of the promotion if they wanted. Maybe you can do an electronic save the date now announcing a cruise wedding in the month and year and say you will announce the ship and exact dates later but give people some overall price targets to start their planning? The other things I would suggest are seeing if the Royal Caribbean calendar is accessible so you can monitor availability of your desired date and watch for cruise booking promotions.

 

 

Good luck and happy planning!

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